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When Anna Starling flees a dissolving marriage in California to save herself and her artistic career in Cape Breton, her life intersects with that of Red Murdock, a cabinetmaker who has recently lost the great love of his life, Rosaire. Surrounded by old ghosts and echoes of those who once lived in this isolated, now depleted community, Anna and Murdock discover that the present is inextricably linked with the past, and that both can lead to moral dilemmas. How grave is sexual betrayal? Who is behind the bale of marijuana that washes up on Anna's shore, and what should she, an outsider, and Murdock, rooted in this place and attracted to her, do about it? Can Anna and Murdock ever overcome the pain of the past?

Part erotic love story, part quest for home and heart, Anna From Away is a superbly crafted tale of love after love, a novel rich in atmosphere and infused with lyrical descriptions of land and sea. Written with an ear for the cadences of Cape Breton and a profound understanding of the many emotional shadings that exist between the sexes, this novel is another superb work from D.R. MacDonald.

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D. R. MacDonald is a Canadian-American writer who publishes novels and short stories.

Born in Boularderie, Nova Scotia and raised in Ohio, he is a professor emeritus of creative writing at Stanford University. He still spends summers at the family homestead in Cape Breton Island, which he purchased in 1971, and his fiction is set in Cape Breton.

His novel Lauchlin of the Bad Heart was a longlisted nominee for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2007.